


(home is) the place i take my weary soul

by klutzyelf



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Episode Related, F/M, Feelings, Finale spoilers, Gen, Home, Rebuilding, do not copy to another site, duck has feelings i have feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 01:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21152984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klutzyelf/pseuds/klutzyelf
Summary: A brilliant sunrise begins to crest over the mangled peak of Mount Kepler, and for the first time since an alien gate opened deep within its heart Kepler, West Virginia understands itself fully and completely.Duck, immediately after.





	(home is) the place i take my weary soul

**Author's Note:**

> i finished the finale at 5am and then wrote this immediately upon waking this morning. i absolutely do not remember if there was a scene where they all said goodbye to each other on the alien thing, but if there was then here's another! probably to definitely not canon compliant?? hope you like it anyway!

In the immediate aftermath of the Reconciliation Project's termination, Duck Newton feels profoundly, absolutely, and completely fulfilled. A tangible weight releases its hold on his chest, and though he can still barely breathe through the adrenaline rush constricting his lungs, he feels lighter and more elated than he has in decades.

And then Billy opens two portals with no connection between them.

He knows, even as he makes Billy tell them, what the caveat of their victory will be – the but, the bittersweet, the other shoe. Just as he knows, before Aubrey and Thacker make their decisions, what those decisions will be.

“There’s still another home that needs protecting,” says Aubrey. She’s fidgeting in front of him, a tiny flame flicking back and forth between her index fingers as if there were a possibility of him not understanding that she does not belong to Kepler and to Earth the way he does. That Aubrey belongs to Sylvain just as much. That she was raised by two planets instead of one, and that in this moment the other needs her more.

_Of course,_ he understands. So, he squeezes her tight without a word and feels a bit of him leave with her as she steps through the portal, after Thacker, and into Sylvain.

“She will be well taken care of, Wayne Newton.” Minerva stands beside him, arms akimbo, a broad smile with soft edges stretching across her face. 

Duck doesn’t acknowledge the fact that he can barely speak through the swelling of his throat and the feeling of something important and fragile ending just as he’s finally learned how to appreciate it. “Aw hell, I know that.” Still… Aubrey’s absence, in that moment, flares and hurts just as much as the empty space Ned left behind. It’s a clean hurt – fresh, but not laden with guilt or grief the way Ned’s still is. With luck she will see him again.

"Duck. I cannot keep the portals open forever."

At Billy’s mechanical tone, Duck finally sees that he and Minerva are the only one’s left in the trashed Reconciliation atrium. Somewhere behind them the joyous sounds of Beacon laying waste to what is left of the alien technology fills the space between that moment, and the moment Duck realizes that there’s still one goodbye he has to make.

He looks up at the heroic figure Minerva cuts beside him. She is looking down at him in return. “Well, Wayne Newton,” she says, “I think we should be on our way.”

“Yeah,” he coughs, “yeah, I s’pose we should.” He tries to give her a smile but doesn’t know how well he manages it. “You’ll do good out there; Sylvain’s lucky to get ya, and Aubrey’ll need help keeping out of trouble.”

Minerva looks puzzled. “Sylvain?”

He nods. Duck wants to rip the band-aid off and get this over with. This stalwart warrior has been a fact of his life for so long that he cannot fathom what it will be like without her around. He had a glimpse, back when their link was severed, and he’s honestly not looking forward to an entire life with her complete absence. 

Because she will be absent. Sylvain needs strong wills and competent hands, and Duck can think of few people who have either more than Minerva.

“That’s where you’re headin’, right?” Duck tries to look her in the eye as he says it, he does, but finds himself unable to stop taking in the rest of her – trying to commit her to memory so he can conjure her image along with Aubrey’s and Ned’s and Thacker’s someday. It’s just goodbye – a long goodbye but maybe not a permanent one – he has made _plenty_ of goodbyes, he can look her in the eye and give her a proper one. “Seems like your kinda place.”

Something passes through her eyes – a thought, an emotion. For all that he’s gotten pretty good at reading her, Duck doesn’t really know what she's thinking now. She breaks his gaze to stare at the dozens of shining portals, all leading to different worlds, different war-torn existences, different homes in need of protection and tutelage just as much as Sylvain. Duck follows her eyes around the room. He wonders which pair had once led to her planet.

“If you don’t mind,” she says, softer than he’s ever heard her speak, almost uncertain in a way. “I think I would like to stick with you, Wayne Newton.” And in the aftermath of Reconciliation, it dawns on Duck for the first time that she’s spent years beyond measure fighting this fight for a home that she can never return to, and it suddenly occurs to him that she must be even more lost than he is, just better at hiding it.

So, he doesn’t question her. Doesn’t second guess her decision, because it’s hers to make. 

She steps through the portal back to Kepler by his side.

Home is a delicate and fragile thing and sometimes it shatters and cracks under the weight of outside forces or is pulled too thin by the desperate hands of the people it shelters. It gives ultimatums and demands sacrifice and leaves the young and old alike profoundly empty when it leaves.

But Duck has come to realize that it’s also something worth fighting for when you find it. Worth nurturing and healing when it hurts. As he observes the citizens of Kepler only hours after their own battle – his friends, and neighbors, and teachers, and colleagues – they are already sweeping up the shattered remains of windows, and throwing open doors left and right in welcome. They offer care, and refuge, and help to those around them regardless of form. And for just a moment, Duck feels something blossom within.

A brilliant sunrise begins to crest over the mangled peak of Mount Kepler, irreparably damaged, but still standing tall and proud amidst the chaos the invaders left behind them. The sky overhead brightens, cloudless, illuminating the scene before him.

Duck has spent his entire life in this community caring and being cared for, and for the first time since an alien gate opened deep within its heart Kepler, West Virginia understands itself fully and completely.

He smiles.

Minerva places her hand on his shoulder, squeezing just a bit too hard. His bones creak, and something in him tries to settle – it can’t, not yet, but he has a feeling that it will.


End file.
